9-Year-Old Punished For Throwing Too Hard

Jericho Scott has been told that he can't pitch anymore, at least not in the league that he is playing in right now.

He can still play on the team, but he can't throw his impressive 40 MPH fastball to opposing hitters. My question, along with plenty of other people, is why?

Sports are competition, and in order to make yourself better, you need to face the best. So it actually benefits the other kids if Scott continues to pitch, but the parents are afraid that he is just too good to play with the other nine-year-old kids.

They fear that Scott is going to hurt someone. Scott is very accurate with his pitches and has shown no signs of hitting a batter.

Some people want to have Scott moved into a more competitive league, so he himself can get better.

However, isn't this a ploy just to get him out of their league?

Yes, sports are competition, but when you're nine, it's more about having fun, and playing a game for the sheer joy of it.

Scott has fun pitching, so why punish him just because no one else can hit his stuff?

I see a comparison between Scott and former Major League pitcher and Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan. Follow me here.

Scott throws too hard and the batters are of no competition to him, even though they are the same age. Nolan Ryan still threw hard into his late thirties, and often times faced guys half his age.

How would you like to have been a 19-year-old rookie, making your MLB debut and facing the "Express" at 102mph? Is that fair?

If you punish a kid for throwing too hard in little league, than why wasn't Ryan punished (or told to throw softer), even when there wasn't a chance in hell that batters would get a hit off him?

Scott just wants to pitch, so why not just let him do that? It's not about what others think of him, its all about where he wants to play.

Since parents are scared of Scott, then they should be the ones switching their kids to another league, not Scott's.

Going back to the Ryan comparison; if you can hit Scott, then you can hit anyone. It's for bragging rights, and makes a great story for the rest of your friends. "Yeah, I knocked his 40mph fastball right over the center field wall!" It compares with, "Hey, I actually hit the Ryan Express back up the middle!"

So let Scott pitch, but more importantly, let him pitch because he has fun doing so.